Reader: Five Points Residents Are Mad About Newcomers Praising Gentrification

When you write about development in Denver, readers respond — whether they're commenting on a story about Goed Zuur, a new taproom devoted to sour beers opening on Welton Street, or on one of Teague Bohlen's columns about what makes residents of certain neighborhoods mad — mostly recently, residents of Five Points...

By Westword Staff

February 14, 2016

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When you write about development in Denver, readers respond — whether they're commenting on a story about Goed Zuur, a new taproom devoted to sour beers opening on Welton Street, or on one of Teague Bohlen's columns about what makes residents of certain neighborhoods mad — mostly recently, residents of Five Points. Mike has his own ideas for what makes Five Points neighbors mad:

Out-of-state drivers, people who didn't pop out of their mom within a ten-mile radius, transplants, anything having to do with anyone who isn't from Colorado.

Lauri offers this:

You know what makes this longtime Five Points resident really, really mad?

Newcomers singing the praises of gentrification.

It's ridiculous to say you move to a neighborhood "because of the diversity, not to change it," while in the very next sentence praising how awesome said gentrification is...right down to calling the end results "majestic". Seriously, just stop.

But Scott responds:

All areas go through cycles. All of them. It just so happens that this is the cycle of gentrification for Five Points. It's happened in other areas and soon, it will die out again. What I think is comical is that the writer throws Home Depot and Wal-Ma...See More
Adds Matthew: Why is it so difficult to understand that when you get hundreds of thousands of people moving here over the years, things are bound to change? If the residents of Five Points didn't want what happened to their neighborhood to happen, they should have not let their neighborhood get to the point where it became an attractive target of "gentrification."

What do you think of the changes around town? The changes in Five Points?

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